A walk between Chapelhall and Airdrie’s Caldervale High School was held to protest against proposed school transport cuts

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Parents are welcoming North Lanarkshire Council’s U-turn on cutting eligibility for free school transport – with one campaigner saying: “Common sense has prevailed”.

The Labour administration last week abandoned the unpopular proposals in the wake of the public’s “emphatic rejection”.

Chapelhall mum Amanda Sloss took part in the successful campaign, joining dozens of other local parents in walking from their homes to their children’s school at Caldervale High to demonstrate the time and risk involved in the increased walk.

She said of the response to the council U-turn: “Everybody is absolutely delighted; we thought it was a done deal and a case of the buses being removed or asking people to pay for travel, so this is a huge relief.

“Everybody felt we had to keep campaigning and the support was absolutely brilliant, including for us from Councillor Paul Di Mascio.

“Everybody was standing up for their own children, and for every child in North Lanarkshire.

One of the 'unsafe roads' Amanda claims her son will have to walk to go to school

“We appreciate the council have to save money somewhere, but risking the safety of children isn’t something they should be considering.”

More than 8600 people signed an online petition protesting against the budget proposal, which would have saved £2.4 million.

Announcing last week that the policy was being dropped, education convener Frank McNally said: “We have listened to the legitimate concerns being raised.

“It has sadly been necessary to explore all areas of service provision; this decision may have an effect on other areas of the education budget as we continue to face a £22 million cut from the Scottish Government.”

She said: “We’d already said we were against this and we’re delighted it doesn’t have to go any further. Big congratulations go to the parents and guardians who campaigned for this; it goes to show the strength in numbers.”

Neil Gray, the Airdrie & Shotts MP, gathered a further 1400 petition signatures against the transport cuts and said: “I welcome the decision but think it was a shame that the proposal was made in the first place.

“I don’t think it should have been given that level of consideration – it was always dangerous and a very unpopular move, and the level of response from parents was overwhelming and unanimous in opposition.”